Together, Minister of Local Government, Prof. Shyaka Anastase; Minister of Commerce, Soraya Hakuzimana; Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Geraldine Mukeshimana and other officials, on 25th of November 2018, visited Irish potato farmers and selling points in Nyaruguru, Burera and Musanze districts, where they were taken through issues surrounding cultivating and selling the food crop.
Farmers said that they lack of a market for their harvest which perishes in the fields because they are not allowed to harvest them without permission.
They complain that companies that buy their harvest breach the prices fixed by the Ministry of Commerce by underpaying them, and the fact that they supply to Agro Processing Trust Corporation (APTC) APTC after which they wait for payment which takes longer to be realized.
One of the farmers said: “The cooperative serves farmers nothing but they incur losses. You spend the whole week waiting for payment. They prevent us from harvesting them and they get rotten in the fields. Moreover, we even run out of time for cultivating waiting that they give us a day to harvest.”
Farmers also complained that the company is charging them Rwf12 per kilogram which they say is not explained.
The meeting decided to terminate all the mandates of the company. Buying and selling Irish potatoes was entrusted to cooperatives of farmers.
Minister of Local Government, Prof. Anastase Shyaka, said that one of the decisions they made was to entrust cooperatives with the power to buy the harvest and dismiss APTC.
“The decision we had made as a government was to talk to them. What needs to be done would emanate from them, because we believe that the word of a citizen and their role in policy making are important,” he said.
He added that this is done to protect the rights of the farmers so that they sell at fair prices. The second step is to enhance the capacity of cooperatives to be able to manage its members’ resources and in helping them to become wealthier.
Minister of Commerce, Soraya Hakuzimana and Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Geraldine
Mukeshimana, urged local government to follow up implementation of the fixed price in order to combat brokers who give farmers very little money.
In order to ensure that the farmer accesses information on time, it was agreed that the prices will be displayed at selling points, announced on radio citizens’ meetings.
The meeting ensued after the public, media and Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), Governance Framework highlighted that farmers were not pleased with the way their harvest is bought at a price that is different from the one fixed by MINICOM.
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